March 7, 2005

Lately, landmines have been the focus at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva. On February 17, Colombia announced its recent destruction of 6,784 anti-personnel mines, the last of 18,501 in the military stockpile to be destroyed. The remaining 986 mines, maintained Ambassador Ucros, would be used only "for the instruction and training of deminers." 

Last week the CD commemorated the sixth anniversary of the entry-into-force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known otherwise as the Ottawa Convention. 

On the March 3 anniversary, Austria, Canada, Kenya, Algeria, Australia, Switzerland, Argentina, Belgium, Croatia, Norway, the United States, Italy and Venezuela all made statements under the presidency of New Zealand. 

Austria's Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch discussed the objectives and achievements of the Convention's First Review Conference in Nairobi, over which he presided. He noted that 144 States have ratified the Convention, which "has established an international standard", and that, as a result of the Convention, "produc(tion) and trade with this perilous weapon has almost completely ceased." 

Ambassador Petritsch highlighted five of the 70 "concrete actions" agreed upon in Nairobi, including:
- "universal adherence to the Convention will remain an important priority";
- "mak(ing) sure that States Parties meet the 10-year mine-clearance deadline" as "the most significant challenge for the next 5 years";
- a recommitment "for the care, rehabilitation and reintegration of mine victims";
- "the destruction of stockpiled anti-personnel mines...(as) a key priority";
- acknowledging the "substantial political, financial and material commitments" which will be required to meet the Convention's aims.

Ambassador Paul Meyer of Canada stressed the norm-building function of the Ottawa Convention, noting the "de facto observance throughout the international community...even by States outside of the Convention." He also noted that "(o)f the 135 States that participated, 25 were States not yet Party, the majority of which expressed their overwhelming support of the principles and objectives behind this Convention, many stating publically their intention to eventually join." Canada, which holds the Chair of the Universalization Contact Group, believes that "there is good reason to believe that continued momentum towards universalization will achieve impressive results in the near future." 

Canada urged hold-out States to "take steps to further emphasize their commitment to (the convention's) humanitarian objectives, through issuing on a national basis moratoria not to produce or transfer anti-personnel landmines, initiating stockpile destruction programmes, funding mine action initiatives, or... submitting voluntary transparency reports." Such unilateral actions, he stressed, "would reflect and support the important international norm established by the Convention." 

The United States, one of the major producers of landmines and a non-party to the Convention, reiterated that it was "not yet in a position to join the Convention", but that the US has proposed a ban on the sale or export of "persistent" landmines. Ambassador Cynkin stressed that this proposed ban was meant to be a "complementary measure" to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Kenya, which hosted the Review Conference, urged States to implement the Nairobi Action Plan and "persistently apply the Common African Position on Anti-Personnel Mines, which was adopted by African Ministers of Foreign Affairs on 23 September 2004." Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Owade stressed the need to universalize the Convention, assist African States parties in fulfilling their obligations, enhance assistance to mine victims and work toward realization of other objectives in the Action Plan. 

Australia, Switzerland, Argentina, Croatia, Algeria, Belgium and Italy briefly expressed their support for the Convention and noted their national progress in fulfilling the objectives of the Convention and the Nairobi Action Plan. 

Australia's Ambassador Michael Smith also noted "one of the striking features of the Ottawa treaty (insofar as) it was negotiated, outside of the UN system and in partnership with civil society...This negotiation on landmines had to be taken out of the CD in order to produce real results that have impacted positively on millions of people's lives." Adding that, "frankly, the situation here has not improved since that happened," the CD, he fears, has "lost the ability to react and respond to new challenges in the arms control/disarmament field, or indeed to the old challenges." Norway echoed this sentiment, wondering out loud if an "Ottawa-like process" could be pursued on other issues that were "ripe for negotiation." 

On March 3, New Zealand Ambassador Tim Caughley presented a "progress report" on his consultations as President of the CD. Using the non-paper put forth by the previous President, he ascertained "an overwhelming concern to get down to real work" on at least one, if not more, of the topics on the proposed agenda: Fissile Materials Treaty, Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, Negative Security Assurances and nuclear disarmament. 

The inability of the CD to appoint four Special Coordinators was met with "widespread regret." His efforts to enhance transparency were widely supported, and he felt a great level of support for the directions he is pursuing in breaking the impasse and adopting a program of work. 

While the news on landmines is certainly encouraging, especially in light of the glacially slow progress on other disarmament fronts, many in the disarmament community are hoping for more movement by the CD on nuclear disarmament talks, especially with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference nearly around the corner. As Japan's Ambassador Yoshiki Mine stated on February 17, "It is essential that we maintain a robust and reliable NPT regime... The Conference on Disarmament is not the NPT, but I believe both have to work to achieve the common objective of international security."